It wakes up food with the fire of habanero and the smoke of ancho chiles.

When I was writing up my notes, one sentence said it all - It wakes up food with the fire of habanero and the smoke of ancho chiles. Those two chiles are the namesake and foundation of both the rub and sauce. Ancho chiles are dried/smoked poblano chiles which are pretty mild and as a dried ground chile add a sultry smokiness to foods but not too much heat. Habanero chiles are a small orange chile that packs a lot of heat with a slight citrus-like flavor.

These weren't thick pork chops so I just grilled them direct at 400°f about 5-6 minutes per side. The grates pictured are from Craycort. Those inserts come out and you can put in griddles, chicken thrones, or a vegetable wok.

I grilled some corn as a side but went with a sweet rub on that.

Wow! This rub announces itself with authority.

This past weekend we made a couple of Tex-Mex style smoked pork butts. I seasoned one butt with just the Green Chile Rub, which is always a favorite of ours. I seasoned the other pork butt with a moderate layer each of the Green Chile and Anchonero rubs.

I had thoughts that I might have used too much of the Anchonero rub but pork butts have a lot of meat volume to surface area ratio so you can go heavier with seasonings compared to say - a pork chop.

I smoked both butts on a Grilla pellet cooker. I was going to use one of my kamados but I had an unrelenting migraine and needed this cook to be as easy as possible.

The butts developed a nice color.

We got quite a smoke ring from the pellet cooker. Pulled the meat and since we were using it for tacos at work, shredded it.

For work, we served them food truck style with the Tex-Mex pork, cilantro-lime slaw, pico de gallo, and topped it off with the Anchonero sauce.

This is not your same old Southern BBQ sauce. It had Kirk's golden Albukirky touch and a Southwestern flare.

Before I give my thoughts on these, I should explain my heat preference. I like foods that the general public would consider spicy but chileheads would find laughable. So I like things such as Cholula hot sauce or ground chipotle powder.

Anchonero Hot BBQ Rub ($6 per 6 oz shaker)
For the Anchonero Hot BBQ Rub, it is on the upper range of my heat tolerance. It has sugar, paprika, and garlic but the predominant flavors are heat and a smoky-earthiness. The texture of the rub is fine and it brings a nice bright red color to foods. Depending on your heat preferences, I'd say go lightly with it on small cuts like chicken and chops. It absolutely rocks on big cuts like the pork butt. Everyone at work gave me very favorable feedback about it. This is definitely a great "something different" for pork butts. Anchonero pork butts are perfect for tacos, nachos, and heuvos rancheros.

Anchonero Hot BBQ Sauce ($6 per 16 oz bottle)
For the Anchonero Hot BBQ Sauce, I'd say Kirk nailed the name - it is part hot sauce, part BBQ sauce. For me, it starts off warm, picks up heat and finishes with a kick in the back of the throat. It has turbinado sugar in there but you won't get a lot of sweet in the flavor profile, it pretty much gets straight to "the flame dance".

Funny story. When I first did the pork chops, I put the rub on pretty heavy and I could barely eat mine - it was "flames shooting out of the nose" hot. My adult son ate them as leftovers and said that they were some of the best I've ever made and that the sauce was amazing. So your heat preference will go a long way in whether you will like this new line or not. After trying it on several things, I give it two thumbs up but it is what it says it is - a HOT sauce and a HOT bbq rub.

Breaking Bad was set in Albuquerque and one of my favorite quotes from that series sums up how much Albukirky Anchonero Hot BBQ Rub you should try at first on chicken, pork chops, or ribs -

"If that’s true, if you don’t know who I am, then maybe your best course… would be to tread lightly."

This stuff is great, but it does have a kick to it on smaller cuts of meat so tread lightly. That said, it's also now going to be my first "go to" recipe for Tex-Mex style pork butts. Everyone at the office loved it. Thanks, Kirk!

[FTC Standard Disclaimer] We know Kirk and he gives us free or discounted product from time to time but we also buy product from him at full price. Albukirky's is a small business, owned and operated by a great BBQ dude. We received no compensation for this post.